Having played through the PS5 version on diff 4, and a relative of mine claiming he can beat it on PC on diff 5, I came to this page to see what the Renegade Legend WR was, and saw to my astoundment that seemingly every single run had been played on diff 1 where Ratchet/Rivet supposedly can't even take damage or recoil from enemies, making the runs almost unrecognisable as being Rift Apart.

I'd understand if it'd be much to keep track of if there were 5 difficulty categories, but I greatly wish for at least a few Renegade Legend (diff 5) subcategories to be added, even if it'd just be, for example, NG any% and NG+ any%?

I've noticed that the current background image for this game's SpeedrunCOM page at the time of writing (https://www.speedrun.com/themeasset/qrj7pygr/background?v=1da3a62) looks kinda small and pixelated on large screens/windows, so I'm proposing to replace it with Microsoft Store's very high-res version (https://store-images.s-microsoft.com/image/apps.35750.14625216299148424.918436cd-3472-4a8b-8b23-f7afa98af23e.7c66397a-a1be-4edf-ad61-0699a8a69988?q=100) instead?

I'm at least personally unsure whether anyone would wish or plan to run Spec I, but I'll do a split for it if anyone ever does run it.

I was pretty impressed by your Suzuka East shortcuts. In the Suzuki Cappuccino time trial, runners are allowed multiple attempts within the event's 10min time limit. Congrats on your WR.

Looking into the matter more closely (for the occasion of your new WR run), it seems I would be able to approve Spec II runs into the current categories (since its events at least seem to be held on the same courses as Spec III), whereas Spec 1 would've required entirely new categories. This has been reflected in a new rule in the game run rules I added today.

I honestly never really thought through such a scenario when I redesigned all the categories last year, since surely I thought Sony's update servers would still be online and update Spec II users to Spec III.

In Island Cycling's Free Course difficulty, the game openly challenges the player to pop all 20 balloons that are spread widely throughout the island in less than 30 minutes, and which are not displayed on the in-game map. Considered very difficult by most players to accomplish within those 30 minutes, I recall doing it in mere 22min in 2015 by starting on the grasspatch near the top of the volcano.

I therefore propose adding that as a category or level for speedruns.